Telangana Rashtra Samithi working president K T Rama Rao’s statement that the Centre was not devolving not even 40 per cent of the money that is collected in the form of taxes from Telangana has not been taken kindly by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
In his strong reaction to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman’s statement that the Centre had released tax devolution funds to the tune of Rs 85,013 crore in six years to Telangana, KTR gave a break up of what Telangana gave to the Centre and what the Centr had given back to Telangana.
According to him, between 2014-15 and 2018-19, the government of India collected Rs 2,72,926 crore as taxes from Telangana but gave back only Rs 1,12,854 crore to the state. The statement put the balance at Rs 1,60,072 crore.
BJP official spokesman K Krishnasagar Rao said KTR’s argument on central tax devolutions is ridiculous and politically motivated.
“Whatever taxes that is collected from the people of Telangana do not belong to the state. It is not state’s revenue and KTR’s argument is fundamentally flawed and is bereft of any understanding of the tax sharing provisions laid down by the Indian constitution,” he said.
He said KTR should understand Articles 268 to 293 part 12 of the Constitution which outline the tax revenue sharing provisions. Telangana is a state in the Indian Union and not a country by itself.
“The Centre collects taxes from the states to bear the expenditure on defence, food subsidies, calamity relief, infrastructure, airports, ports and many other activities. How can KTR demand that the Centre should give all the tax money collected back to the state?” he asked.
Rao demanded that the state should submit accounts for Rs.1,15, 000 crores of devolution, grant-in aid and another Rs.1,25,000 crores funds through loans and guarantees by central government to the state in the last 6 years.
“There’s hardly any developmental expenditure visible and experienced by the common people of Telangana state. Where did all the funds go?” he asked.
